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Friday, 30 December 2016

Retrospective 2016: a Baker’s Dozen from a year of blogging

The year now slipping away was an active one for me as
regards blogging, the publication of the 5th Dawlish Chronicles
novel, Britannia’s Amazon, the completion of the 6th novel –
due out early next year. Other highlights were running a workshop on plotting
at the Weymouth Leviathan Literary Festival in March and helping organise the
Historical Novel Society’s conference in Oxford in September.

I published 74 blogs during the year, including eight from
guests who included Helen Hollick (twice), Richard Abbott (twice), Chris Sams, Tom
Williams, Nykle Dijkstra, Catherine Curzon and Geri Walton. As usual, my logs fall
into three categories: the Age of Fighting Sail, the Victorian Era and the
Early 20th Century. For the 2016 retrospective I’ve picked out one
blog for each month of the year and I’ve added a thirteenth for good measure. I
hope you’ll enjoy them.

January: War in the North Sea, 1864 - The Battle of Heligoland

In 1864 the small nation of Denmark was attacked by the combined forces of Prussia and Austria-Hungary. The Danish resistance was to be heroic, and never more so than when naval forces clashed off the island of Heligoland in a battle now largely forgotten outside Denmark. Click here to read about this action.

February: HMS Hector 1782 – an epic of leadership

The survival of 200 men from a battle-damaged and hurricane-battered
ship of the line in 1782 was due to the outstanding leadership and professional
competence of a 20-year old officer, Lieutenant Henry Inman (1762 –1809), who
was later to be a noted frigate commander. Clickhere to read about this drama.

March: A British
cruiser 2000 miles up the Amazon: HMS Pelorus
1909

The greed and excesses of the Fitzcarraldo rubber-boom era
on the Amazon, slavery and exploitation of helpless indigenous people, and
Britain’s laureate of Empire – all linked by a Royal Navy cruiser some 2000
miles from the sea. Click here for this remarkable story.

April:The Ram Triumphant: Lissa
1866

The clash between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian navies
off the Dalmatian island of Lissa in 1866 was to be the only large-scale battle
fought by first-generation ironclads. It was remarkable not only for the
success of ramming tactics but for the aggressive and capable leadership of the
Austro-Hungarian commander, Wilhelm von Tegettoff. An earlier blog saw him in
action against the Danes two years earlier but his day of greatest glory was to
be at Lissa. Click here to read about thebattle.

May: An epic stand
against French oared-galleys in British Waters – 1707

When one thinks of battles involving oared galleys one
thinks automatically of actions in the Mediterranean. The galley’s day as a
fighting vessel – a long one, stretching back two thousand years – ended in the
early eighteenth century and as such they do not figure in most accounts of sea
warfare of that era, as “Fighting Sail” reached its apogee of efficiency. I was
therefore all the more surprised to come on an account of an epic last-stand by
a single British frigate against French galleys in the Thames estuary in
1707. Click here to read about it.

June: The Dutch East
Indies Ulcer – the Aceh Wars begin 1873-74

The history of the Netherlands in the 19th Century is a
closed book for most non-Dutch, not least because of the incorrect perception
that “little happened” and as the country was at peace in Europe from 1831 to
1940. The Netherlands were however involved in a series of colonial campaigns
in the vast territory of the Dutch East Indies, which constituted most of what
is the present-day nation of Indonesia. The greatest – and most sustained – of
these conflicts was the series of difficult campaigns from 1873 to 1914 which
became known as the Aceh War.Click hereto read how it started.

July:Naval Hero Sir James
Lucas Yeo

Handsome and courageous, obviously a born leader, Sir James
Lucas Yeo (1782 – 1818) seems like a figure who steps from the pages of naval
fiction. He is best remembered today for his command of British forces on the
Great Lakes in the War of 1812 but this naval officer’s rapid ascent to such a
significant command started with a spectacular attack on coastal fortifications
in 1805. This was the first of three articles dealing with Yeo’s career. Click here to read it.

August: First Blood
1914: Amphion and Königin Luise

Within 48 hours of Britain and Germany going to war on 4th
August 1914, one British ship and one German ship had been destroyed by each
other. The high casualties involved brought home to both nations the stark
reality of how murderous war at sea would prove in the conflict now embarked
upon. Click here to read of these events.

September: The
Capture of Curaçao 1807

In just a few hours on New Year’s Day 1807 the Royal Navy
captured the Dutch base at Curaçao in the Caribbean with almost ludicrous ease
despite its powerful defences. Failure to recover in time from hangovers
resulting from the previous night’s festivities may have played a role… Click here to read about it.

October: The bloody Plattsburg mutiny, 1816

A fast-sailing American trading schooner carrying eleven
thousand pounds of coffee and forty-two thousand dollars in coins was hijacked
by her mutinous crew in 1816. But the voyage that followed brought them to a
very unlikely destination and was to end in a mystery that is still unsolved. Click here to read of this savage affair.

November: Frigate
Duel 1782: HMS Santa Margarita and L’Amazone

Two evenly-matched frigates, one British, one French
encountered each other off the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in 1782. A French
squadron of eight ships of the line were drawing close however and flight
rather than flight seemed the more reasonable option for the British ship. That
was not however as it worked out… Click here to read about it.

December: HMS Mediator at odds of Five to One, 1782

In the closing months of the American War of Independence an
out-gunned British warship engaged an enemy force at odds of five to one. It
proved to be one of the most remarkable actions of the period – and had a
unlikely link to Mozart’s opera, The
Marriage of Figaro! Click here to read about it.

And my own choice as
13th:

Guest Blog by Nykle Dijkstra: A Treasure Trove of Naval Art

I was lucky
to be approached by Nykle Dijkstra, a Dutch reader of my blog who is
interested, among much else of a nautical nature, in the art of the great Age
of Fighting Sail. A student of maritime history, Nykle told me something of what
he was undertaking add I invited him to prepare a blog. It turned out to be a
superb one, as you’ll see, and it reflects some detective work on his part. It
all starts, as good detective stories so often do, with the discovery of an old
sketch and a few written pages. What followed led to him striking gold – the
world of Hornblower and Jack Aubrey brought to life. I hope you enjoy his
article as much as I did. Click here forit.

And a
little about my 2016 book: Britannia’s
Amazon, the fifth in the Dawlish Chronicles series.

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About Me

My "Dawlish Chronicles" are set in the late 19th Century and reflect my deep interest in the politics, attitudes and technology of the period. The fifth novel in the series, “Britannia’s Amazon” is now available in both paperback and Kindle formats. It follows the four earlier Dawlish Chronicles, "Britannia's Wolf", "Britannia's Reach”, "Britannia's Shark" and "Britannia's Spartan". Click on the book covers below to learn more or to purchase.
I’ve had an adventurous career in the international energy industry and am proud of having worked in every continent except Antarctica. History is a driving passion in my life and I have travelled widely to visit sites of historical significance, many insights gained in this way being reflected in my writing. I welcome contact on Facebook and via this Blog. My website is www.dawlishchronicles.com and its “Conflict” section has a large number of articles on topics from the mid-18th Century to the early 20th Century.